Environment Minister calls on municipalities to take advantage of funds for the coast

Speaking to journalists yesterday on Faro beach, where she attended a lunch after attending a meeting of the drought monitoring committee in the region, in the Algarve capital, Maria da Graça Carvalho highlighted that there are 167 million euros available to intervene on the coast in projects under this programme, which only has interventions approved worth 50 million euros.

"We currently have around 50 million euros in ongoing projects, 85% of which are financed by the Sustainable Operational Programme and 15% co-financed by the Environmental Fund , throughout the country. The largest of all is in Figueira da Foz, which began on Monday", said the minister, stressing that this project alone represents an investment of 20 million euros.

The minister highlighted that interventions are also planned to replace sand in Costa da Caparica, in Esposende, Furadouro (Ovar), in Espinho and in the Algarve, as in the case of Vau beach, in Portimão.

«We will have the contract ready this month for the largest of all here in the Algarve, which is in Garrão and Vale do Lobo. And in Fuseta, the international tender was published in the Official Gazette on Thursday», he added, highlighting that in Fuseta, in the municipality of Olhão, «emergency work» has already been carried out.

As Maria da Graça Carvalho explained, in March «there was a complete dragging of the sand» which left Fuseta «without a beach» and it was necessary to carry out «emergency work» to guarantee its opening at the start of the bathing season, in June.

“But now we are going to do a more complete project, therefore of a larger scale, so that there is a 30-metre wide stretch of sand on Praia da Fuseta”, explained the minister, who visited the island during the afternoon.

Maria da Graça Carvalho insisted that the Sustainable Operational Programme “still has plenty of funding” available, with only “a third of the funding being in progress”, and the interventions needing to be ready by 2029 for the amounts to be used.

“We have already managed to have projects worth 50 million and now, that is why we are saying that it is necessary to implement, we need to move forward with the projects so that the money is not lost and that this can be used to recover the entire coastline”, said the minister, clarifying that the projects may include replacing sand, interventions on cliffs or improvements to water quality.

But, although there is still “some time”, it is “important to draw attention now, because the project has to be prepared, submitted, approved and then the work carried out” by the municipalities, with the support of the Portuguese Environment Agency ( APA ), he reinforced.

Yesterday, in Faro, Maria da Graça Carvalho validated a protocol to start the new Alportel Dam, as reported by Barlavento . In addition, she announced the end of almost all restrictions on the capture of groundwater for agriculture in the Algarve.